Reader Service Card Module


 

This system can be used as a stand-alone system, or together with the MA Circulation Manager. It is completely integrated with the MA Circulation Manager base system. This ensures an efficient storage of information as there will be only one record per subscriber. Therefore, when a reader service card is returned, you can make any changes, verify dates, etc., when entering the reader service card numbers. Any change made affects the whole system. You can also store lead names on the system which are not subscribers for fulfillment purposes only, or for other purposes, such as promotion purposes to convert to paid subscribers at a later date.

Entering leads is a simple matter of pushing the RSC button on the search screen or the subscriber edit screen. When you decide to generate leads for your advertisers, you choose the leads generation option from the Reports option of the main menu. The standard lead form that is used with the Reader Service Card system is a one-third page card type designed for a window envelope. You can change or create your own custom sales lead formats using the report option with the system. You can also design separate reports for each publication within the system using the RSC Module.

The information printed on the form includes: reader's name and address, company size, job function, industry, source, the number of items circled, the issue the card came from, and a promo message. This can also be customized by you

An optional feature which may increase lead turn-around and efficiency is the Fax Lead system. This option enables the user to fax all leads to the advertiser directly from the PC to their fax machine. This method provides quick response for the advertiser, as well as clearer fax transmissions. Our system is designed to work with Symantec Software's WinFax Pro, and is an automatic fax broadcast system which sends the leads directly to advertisers' fax machine without operator intervention. As this is a computer generated copy, it eliminates distortion caused by first printing on paper and then manually faxing, which is like sending a copy of a copy instead of an original. The result is a very professional report out of the advertiser's fax.

Faxing of sales leads can be done when the office is closed so as not to interrupt or hold up the fax machine during busy office hours. The fax card also eliminates postage costs and handling necessary to send leads, as well as the time required to print individual leads. When you setup an advertiser, you establish whether the are to receive leads to printer, to file or via fax. You can set them up on one or more options, or to none if you do not wish to fulfill the leads for some reason at a given time. If you decide to set the advertiser up for faxing purposes, you need to supply their fax number and indicate whether or not the leads should go out with local calls or long distance calls. Note that long distance faxing can be held off by the system until after 11:00 p.m. when telephone rates are at their lowest.

Another alternative is to send the leads to an ASCII delimited file which can be copied to disk or e-mailed to advertisers for their processing. Whether leads for advertisers are printed to lead forms, faxed or sent to file is determined in the advertiser setup screen. You can assign all or some of these three output formats to an advertiser, and the system will remember this for future output runs. There is also a check list option to indicate who is receiving leads for a given run, and what their settings are within the system.

Reader Service Card Reports

There are a extensive information and statistical reports that can be generated for your advertisers. These include Reader Service Detail, Readership Through the Book, Leads to Date by Advertiser, and Sales Analysis.

These reports will provide the advertiser with invaluable information on the type of leads they've received, comparisons against their competitors, and much more. For a sample copy of these reports, please call us as we would be happy to provide you with them.

Setting Up

Setting up an issue is a simple task. The screen on the Entry menu for Product Service Products illustrates the information captured. With the new Windows version, the system allows you to assign RSC numbers to be either products/services for individual advertisers, or to be Buying Intentions for a group of advertisers.

This process is done for all of your ads for each issue. If you have a fairly consistent advertising base, the "carry-over" feature can save you a lot of time. What this will do is copy the last issue's set-up to the current one.

Conclusion

The RSC Module makes reader service card fulfillment simple and inexpensive. As an integrated function of the base subscription system, it will save you time and money over any system or service you currently use to fulfill sales leads for advertisers that is not part of your circulation system. This one feature alone has provided savings returning the cost of the system in months to publishers.